Final evaluation about MINE programm

A week has already passed since I've arrived back home. Altough I felt relieved as soon as I arrived back to Malta and had a good night sleep in my cosy bed. Something felt missing!!  Every day I think and I say to my self if what a wonderful experience it was and that I'm missing everyone.

I really feel lucky that I had the chance of participate in such an amazing programme. When I was a student I never had the chance to go on an erasmus exchange and after this experience of getting to know some of the student who went on erasmus I really can say that I missed out on a great opportunity :(
I can say that this MINE programme made me really change my views on student exchange, I'm starting to think maybe someday I could go on a nurse exchange so to broaden more my knowlegde and skills.


I never taught that I could learn so much in these two weeks, altough they have been an intense two weeks. I really  learnt a lot from the students, the mentor and even the academics. Getting to know the different ways each country views the importance of mentoring and how students are taught in thier clinical environment, made me think that altough there are some differences the main concern to all is the STUDENT and thus I belive that the most important thing of all is that a mentor has to be motivated as he/she links everything together, as they play an improtant role in the students clinical placements.
I really liked the setup of the programm. Putting all student in different groups and all the mentors into one group, was really a good idea. I really had the chance to get to know everyone one better and we really worked well a team. Everyone shared they views and gave they opinions and our final product the digital story was amazing.

Before coming to PORI we had the chance to get to know each other from facebook and through  blogging. For me this really worked as it was one of my concerns going to a foreign country and not knowing the people who I was going to be with. Communicating through facebook helped us built a better relationship between each other.

These two weeks in PORI were an eye opener for as they helped me understand better what students want their mentors to be to facilitate their learning. This amazing experience helped me grow more as a proffesional.
A bigThanks goes to all who particapted in this programme as without everyone contribution, I for sure would have not achieved such knowlegde.

Sarah

Tomorrow everything will be over!!:(

Tomorrow everything will end. I can't believe that these two have already passed.
Today was a very hectic and intese day for all the students and mentors. Everyone is working very hard to do a great job and present a great digital story and finally a qaulity conference tomorrow.

Whilst packing again this time to go home :), I'm reflecting on how these two weeks made me understand better how important the role of the mentor is. This experience made me  understand better the differences between other countries  their ways of teaching and mentoring nursing students.

I'm really looking forward for tomorrow for the conference to sell all the groups digital stories.
I wish you all the luck for tomorrow I'm sure it will be great.

Deep into MiNe

We started working on our digital stories on friday, everyone was given a different piece of work to do. Our weekend was very relaxing, On friday we went  out clubbing and it was loads of fun, then saturday we went to Rauma a small little village next to Pori.

Monday we meet again at the University to see what everyone has done, and  I must say that we working very well together and  everyone is sharing experiences and ideas. Im sure that the end product will be great.
 For me this is actually a very great experience Im really enjoying myself getting to know how other work and think. Seeing also the way every country interacts with each other and what diffences are in the mentorship programm is making me reflect a lot on our mentorship programm in Malta. Hence maybe we can make it better for both mentors and students.
Looking at the wiki page, I must say that it is a very good Idea but it needs to be updated and be more user friendly.
Yesterday was an amazing day!!!!!!SLEDGINGGGGG was brilliant, I really had a blast.
In the evening we went to watch the town team ASSAT in a game of Icehockey, I must say I could not understand the game but still was fun as it was something new.


Today we continue working on our digital story, and hopefully it will be nearly finished by today evening.
Now I have to go!!!! IM starving I need breakfast :)

blogging for the first time in PORI

Finally I'm finding time to Blog. These first few days have been very intense for me and my group. One of  our students got sick and we all were conserned about her. I never taught that such an amazing experience could turn into a nightmare!!! .... It's very frustrating to see a young healthy student getting worse and worse every day.


We ended up to the emergency department 3 times. Now I can truly understand the feeling that foreign patients have when they are in our country and have a problem with communication. It was really annoying trying to explain what is going on and no one actually knows what you are talking about. It was impossible to get a psychaitrist to see the our student.... Altough Mirja did her best to get us some help still they washed their hands and left us dealing with our problem on our own.


I did not sleep for 3 whole nights I was totally exuasted by wednesday morning. Her father arrived on wednesday morning and finally I felt relieved as soon as they arrived. It was a huge responsablity for me, I had to make sure that nothing happens to her until her father arrives to Pori.

Yesterday actually was my best day so far.!!!! I felt like a little girl running in the snow, doing snow angels, and sledging :)

Today I'm starting to catch up with my group as we are startting to work on our presentation!!!

Trying to pack

I just woke up :) and I'm trying to pack all my clothes..... It's kind of mission impossible. My spare bed is packed with clothes and I cant understand how they are going to fit all in 1 lugauge.
I never went abroad in winter and especially in these extreme tempretures :) but I'm really looking forward and exicted for this experience!!! Finland was always one of the countries I wanted to visit...

Now I have to go and REALLY start packing :)

first blog post

Hi to all,
This is my first experience with blogging and I'm quite relieved that it was not difficult to create a  blog.
In two weeks time we will embark in a new adventure in PORI. I'm sure that it's going to be a once in a lifetime experience where we are going to learn and get to know people from diffenrent cultures, with differenct ideas we can all share together.

Getting to know everyone from facebook was really a great idea. Sorry if my blog is a bit short but I'm still unsure what to do and say....
See all in PORI in 2 weeks

sarah